


Whether Farmer, King or Viking

by LivPom



Category: Vinland Saga (Anime), Vinland Saga (Manga)
Genre: Angst, Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, F/M, Jealousy, Rejection, Slow Burn, Vikings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-23
Updated: 2020-09-28
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:34:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26591470
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LivPom/pseuds/LivPom
Summary: A fic about how I think Askeladd first love went.**Rewriting the first few chapters before I update it :]
Relationships: Askeladd (Vinland Saga) & Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 11





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'll try really really hard to not loose interest in this one. I'm planning on 4 chapters or maybe even more.

God knows how the woman found herself navigating the treacherous seas of northern Europe. Amongst the crowds of stinking and barbaric Viking men, the likes of her definitely stood out.

Brown skinned folk like herself were not a common sight for most Vikings. Most would go their entire lives never encountering a single soul a shade darker than themselves.

For all their tales of conquering the sea, traveling the ends of the earth, and besting all sorts of men and creators alike; they rarely ever seemed to wrap their heads around one single fact: that people came in all manner shades.

The woman, Kan, started working for Askeladd not long after his band came into existence. He was young, confident and handsome, but one thing he was not was as an expert at navigating the sea. Which was how she came into the picture. 

On their first meeting, Askeladd informed her that he needed someone like her, a sailor, skilled and experienced in their field. For personal reasons, Kan was reluctant to work for him at first, but she soon figured that the money was a convincing enough argument why she should.

At the time, Kan didn't know what to make of the Norseman. He appeared to her very strong and very capable, and yet he carried himself as if he wished to be seen as a joke to everyone who surrounded him. 

In those earlier months, when she was brought on, Kan picked up very quickly that she hated the way he looked at her.

Compared to everyone else, who gawked and stared daggers at her because of well... the color of her skin. Askeladd looked at her as if she were utterly unimpressive. And to be honest, she hoped for years to meet a Norseman whose first reaction to her wasn't to treat her like some sort of freak of nature, but it was completely different with the young Viking.

For one, she could tell that he had never laid eyes on someone like her before. That fact was very easy to observe. Since she had witnessed that familiar old expression on hundreds of faces already, and as a result, she recognized it as intimately as the back of her very own hands. And Askeladd's sorry attempt at masking his awe did nothing to hide the fact that it was there.

The only difference between the looks of awe and confusion his men shared at her, and the one Askeladd offered with his piercing blue eyes that made her senses scream at her to get as farthest away from him as possible, was the message.

His imposing and proud glares were a calculated attempt to force onto her submission to him. At least, that's what Kan assumed they were anyway.

And even when she really wanted to, she could never completely put it into words how it made her feel. But Odin be damned she knew it pissed her off more than anything else ever had.

After a few months or so though the look she could not totally define went and faded away to nothing. Like it was never there to begin with. 

At first, Kan, quickly transitioned from someone who would only be on for one job to a full blown member of the band. Even with that, the two didn't start off with an entirely jovial dynamic. Kan had reasons for not trusting the Viking, and Askeladd was not too pleased with the amount of money he now had to pay her on a regular basis.

Although, to practically everyone else with eyes to see their relationship for what it really was. It was clear to all of them that there was an indiscernible force pulling the two towards each other. Forcing them to trust and need each other even when it was not in their nature to do so.

And deny it as they may, when they each needed someone to rely on during intense situations their eyes still went looking to find the other. To land on them for some fabricated sense of false security. As if to communicate something pride would never allow either one of them to verbalize out loud: _I'm_ _here. I've got your back. You can trust me._

It stayed that way for months. The frustration and tension and playful anger stayed in the air between the two. They would joke, and fight and argue. That was their normal.

Their relationship was in a state where neither one of them would dare try to alter a thing or foolishly attempt to make something out of the sparks that flew between them. Or make sense of the looks exchanged when they would find that they were the only two souls in the same room.

Things between them did eventually change on one cold night. When they were staying in a village they had recently pillaged.

That night, all the men gathered in the largest building in the village to celebrate. Kan watched as they pat themselves on the backs for a work well done. She didn't enjoy pillaging and murder was not something she found worth celebrating. Two things that she made clear at every opportunity she got. So she sat with her arms crossed, grimacing at the Vikings while they drank and danced like mad men.

Eventually, her disinterested and judgemental expression seemed to start to irritate them all. Something they tried not to let come in the way of their night.

The men obviously didn't enjoy how the woman judged them and acted as if she was in any way above them. Because to them, Kan was just as at fault as any one out of them. 

They had all seen her stand there, watching as they slaughtered countless families and they'd very well failed to see her say or do anything to stop the entire affair.

Gruff whispers and menacing stares began to surf the crowded building. One of the norsemen got up to ask what her problem was. She grunted, not saying a word.

Askeladd observed the slowly rising tension in the room. He swiftly interjected with a funny quip to distract his men from their petty anger towards the woman.

He succeeded in making the men laugh and in defusing the situation, but all his comment accomplished was adding more fuel to Kan's rage. She quickly stood up from her chair, and barged out of the filthy building. 

Walking into the cold dark night, she heard the loud roaring laughter behind her back and that made her curse them all to hell. Especially Askeladd. The smug bastard.

She despised when he joked at her expense. He would call her condescending compliments to make his men laugh, and it was insufferable.

She had threatened him several times to stop it. Even had her knife to his balls at one occasion.

"Don't call me exotic." She spat venom at him and all he offered her was a smug and knowing grin. Which made his point clear. That he clearly felt above her anger. 

***

Askeladd spent the rest of the night distantly staring at the door Kan had stomped her way out of. He feigned disinterest and continued to drink his cup of beer. He willed himself not to slip out of the room and go find her.

The next few hours were the longest of his entire life. At a certain point in the night, he couldn't hold out any longer. He wanted to make up a lie or some stupid excuse to go see her, and say... something. Anything, but actually apologize for his words of course.

But then he cursed those thoughts. And promised himself he was not going to show her any kind of special treatment.

She'd have to grow a thicker layer skin like the rest of them if she planned on sticking around them for long. At least that's what he secretly hoped for.

He sat his beer on the table and told Bjorn he would be going out for a piss. Bjorn hummed in response.

Pissing, that was the objective. But standing outside in the cold with a perfect view of the house Kan was staying at...he managed to convince himself checking up on her wouldn't be so bad. He was going to piss and then maybe go look for Kan. And if he found her he wouldn't apologise. Anything but that that was for sure, but he would say something. What exactly though?

***

As she slept, Kan heard a loud knock come from the door, waking her. What time was it? It had probably been hours since she'd left the party.

She wore an old and clearly worn out nightgown that belonged to one of the murdered villagers. It disgusted her how normal taking from those she witnessed being murdered was to her now.

She grabbed the knife nearest to her and walked towards the wooden door. She paused for a second before opening it. With a strained and deep sigh she opened the door to see a male figure standing outside; leaned against the door frame. To her surprise, it was Askeladd.

"What are you doing here?" Kan asked.

Askeladd had not planned this far ahead. He didn't know what to say and even if he did he was too drunk to articulate it. He had never been one to have his words catch in his throat the way it did when he was around Kan. And it was something that had become all too normal for him, and he hated her for that.

"I'll just invite myself since you won't. It's freezing out here," he managed to say before barging in past the woman. Kan only allowed him to enter because she was too tired to fight him on the matter or anything else at the moment.

"Getting cozy in here?" He said gesturing to the unkempt bed she had been laying on just a minute prior.

"What exactly do you want, Askeladd?" She asked trying to cut all the shit and get to the point.

"I would expect you to be with the others at this time."

Perhaps she was too tired to take note of it and Askeladd, too flustered and drunk to realise as well, but that very moment was one of those occasions where they were both completely alone together in the same room. Askeladd sat down on one of the chairs closest to the fire place inside the house. "Earlier tonight..." He began rubbing his hands close to the fire.

"Don't you ever call me exotic again," Kan immediately snapped at him. The rage she felt from earlier that evening coming back.

"It was a joke, Kan," he sighed, spreading his legs and leaning back into his seat. He turned to face her and with that he quickly realized what the woman was wearing. The sight of her in that night gown was incredible.

The way the light emanating from the fireplace lit up her figure. It captured everything the man loved about her. Her face was painted with a tired but determined expression. And it looked as though the edges of her were every so slightly glowing in the moonlit room.

Askeladd couldn't help but smile when Kan lifted her hand to rub the sleep out of her eyes. "Get out already, Askeladd. This is not the time to be having this conversation. I need rest and so do you." She informed him.

He stood up and made his way closer to the woman. Askeladd stopped as he was standing right infront of her. He paused so he could just stand and look at her.

"Give me a moment," he said. "A moment for what?" The woman questioned, partially annoyed. "To look at you," he whispered.

Her eyes widened with his words.

Kan took a few seconds to collect herself. She bit her lips as she withheld herself from speaking. From making anything out of his display.

"Askeladd," she paused.

"You're drunk..."

"I will not make anything out of this," she informed him.

"Why not?" He questioned. She took a few seconds to think over what more to say to him.

"Your advances... If that is what they are," she whispered, staring at her feet and avoiding eye contact with the man. She was embarrassed by her own words, and by the way they sounded when they exited her mouth. He chuckled. "That is what they are, yes."

"You should stop this right now. Leave while I have not the energy to be angry at you for this." He closed his eyes, a smile slowly creeping across his face. He placed his hands on her shoulder. 

"Kan," he sighed.

"No," she said this time more harshly and his eyes came right open. She pushed his hands off her and then took a step back.

Askeladd, began to take note of the early sting of rejection bubbling in his chest. 

He stared at her not knowing what to say.

"I will not whore myself out to you, Askeladd. Now leave." She gripped the knife in her hand much tighter, and when he didn't show any signs of budging, she brought it up to his chest and slowly pushed him to walk out of the door and out into the cold.

Askeladd, stood outside completely dumbfounded. He simply stared as Kan slammed the door loudly in his face. After a long pause, he kicked the dirt beneath him and cursed himself. Never has anybody made him feel that way before. And he thought to himself how unfair it was that being around each other felt so good ( and he knew that Kan could feel it too because he could see it), and yet she still chose to deny it and rip his heart right out of his chest. 

Whilst inside, Kan felt like her heart was ten times it's weight. It pounded and pounded in her chest. Loudly, so fucking loud that she couldn't even hear herself think. She questioned her senses. Did that actually happen? Or was it one of the fantasies she would wake up every morning regretting she had ever dreamt up?

She dropped the knife and with a loud metal clang it hit the cold stone floor. All she needed at the moment was rest, and maybe tomorrow she might want to confront tonight's events. Maybe.

* * *

* * *


	2. Nothing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A week had already passed and he could still picture how her full lips came together to form that harsh no. The sound of it still echoed in his ears. Filling his head completely and making it damn near impossible to hardly think about anything else, but that night. Something that had left his heart shattered and him? Well alone to lick at his wounded ego.  
> ***
> 
> i suck at summaries so i decided to copy paste lmao

Askeladd was ignoring her, and Kan was certain about it.

Because she felt it in the way the air shifted when she greeted him. And she saw it with her own two eyes, that his gaze would suddenly break from her the instant she would take note of it. 

On the occasions that Kan caught him staring at her, and in turn stared back, Askeladd’s expression would become dark and menacing. And not long he would turn to leave, and that was all the evidence that Kan needed to convince herself of the fact that he was avoiding her, and clearly angry at her. 

He was also more aloof and lazier than ever. Combined with the fact that he seemingly prefered to get drunk, eat, sleep, and fuck than discuss their plans moving forward. The condescending pet names also more than tripled the week after that night.

She suspected that he was behaving that way to get under her skin. Maybe so that she would produce a reaction that he could use against her later on. And she didn’t feel like giving him that. She thought that, possibly, Askeladd was trying to make working for him as miserable as possible, and it wasn't fair. Not at all.

He was playing at something. He always fucking was. That was one of the worst things about him.

***

Askeladd despised the way he was acting. He was throwing a petulant tantrum, like a fucking child that had been denied his most treasured plaything. It was pathetic and unlike him.

A week had already passed and he could still picture how her full lips came together to form that harsh no. The sound of it still echoed in his ears. Filling his head completely and making it damn near impossible to hardly think about anything else, but that night. Something that had left his heart shattered and him? Well alone to lick at his wounded ego.

He was quick to snap at his men when they brought Kan up in conversation. Soon, he became a pretty unpleasant person for most of them to be around. He wasn’t going to allow himself to think of her. In all fairness, he could no longer even stand to look at her, to hear her or talk of her. It all just enraged him. And yet all his mind could preoccupy itself with was Kan, that night gown, and his dick. 

**not done yet**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> gonna come clean all the typos out later on. i just need to get this out or im just gonna feel super guilty for how lazy im being w this :((

**Author's Note:**

> i'll come back n sweep the typos out, at the moment tho sorry for subjecting u to them lmfao


End file.
